[svgallery name=”Kolding”]
Photos by Karl Grøndahl and Monika Hestad.
If you have good photos that you’d like to share, please send them to mh@monikahestad.

Resumé: The 8th NORDCODE Seminar & Workshop at the Kolding School of Design in Denmark
Written by Malene Leerberg

May 27 to 29 the 8th NORDCODE Seminar & Workshop took place at the Kolding School of Design in Denmark. Over three days designers and design researchers from the Nordic countries, Great Britain and Italy gathered to give talks, present ideas and discuss issues related to the overarching theme of the seminar: Design Responsibility: Potentials and Pitfalls.

Far from being a simple concept in design and design research, the focus the notion of design responsibility reflects an ever growing attention to and critical thinking upon the effects of design – of conceptualizing, creating, producing, using and putting artifacts into the world. There are issues of functionality, sustainability, ethics, aesthetics and signification – just to name a few.

19 papers were presented, ranging from concept building and visual communication in Finnish heavy metal music to tracing ideology in design texts, and from using design games in participatory design projects in third world countries to considering the meanings of luxury and the implications for designers and society. The wide scope of design topics and perspectives illuminated the complexity and challenges of responsible design and design research as well as the opportunities for designers and design researchers to influence education as well as industry and society.

Wednesday evening seminar participants assembled for an evening workshop, a so-called red wine session, which served as a networking session as well as a informal discussion forum, where topics such as criteria for design, ideology and design, discourse on design, ethics in design, and design and research were debated.

Three keynote speakers also contributed to the seminar theme. Design researcher and lecturer Marie Riegels Melchior recently defended her PhD dissertation Danish in Fashion! An Examination of Design, Identity and the History of the Danish Fashion Industry. Her talk was a critical take on linking nation and branding, exemplified through construction of the concept of “Danish Fashion.” Designer Boris Berlin of the Danish design studio Komplot Design traced more than 20 years of designing with partner Poul Christiansen, while reflecting upon the necessity of being responsible as well as irresponsible as a designer. And finally professor and head of research at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Martin Woolley sought to map the contemporary condition of design in light of the global financial and environmental crisis. Discussing challenges and opportunities for design education, industry and research, he asked: Does design mean responsibility for the right stuff?

Thursday evening the seminar relocated for the Trapholt Art Museum and the 7th Biennale for Arts & Craft and Design, which this year focuses on sustainability. Located by the Kolding fjord, Trapholt also created a beautiful venue for the customary joint seminar dinner.

In connection to Design Responsibility: Potentials and Pitfalls – The 8th NORDCODE Seminar & Workshop, a research publication is in the works and planned for release in early 2010. The publication will include visual material from the workshop & seminar and abstracts of working papers. Furthermore, a selection of the presented working papers will be reworked by the author(s) and included as full research papers in the publication.

Invitation
Design Responsibility: Potentials and Pitfalls – The 8th NORDCODE Seminar & Workshop will take place 27th to 29th of May 2009 in Kolding, Denmark. The seminar is organized and hosted by Kolding School of Design for the Nordic network for research on communicative product design (NORDCODE).
The overall theme of the seminar is the notion of design responsibility. Responsibility is by no means a clear-cut term in design or design research. Design relates to issues of functionality, sustainability, ethics, aesthetics and signification – just to name a few. The aim of the seminar is to bring these issues into play and examine the potentials and pitfalls of design responsibility in connection to the communicative aspects of design. Further we would like to explore design aesthetics, research methodology, design processes, form experience and pleasure, and cultural and social signification of design.
We are looking forward to welcoming you at Kolding School of Design in May!

14:00 Keynote: Marie Riegels Melchior, MA in European Ethnology, PhD, lecturer, Copenhagen Business School, University of Copenhagen and Kolding School of Design: Danish Fashion: A responsible potential or pitfall?